New to the CRT.5 have some questions

[Snipin_Willy]

I bought a used crt.5 that had been converted to brushless last weekend however I didn't get any of the powerplant gear with it. After doing alot of reading and searching on the web for e-crt.5 conversions and mods this place is by far the most useful that I've found. With that being said I need some input.
This is what I've started with:


It was a CRT.5 RTR, now it has a blue groove kit for a brushless setup. Very different from what I've seen on this forum. Motor mounts where the original nitro motor was on a beefy aluminum mount. It mounts up higher, but closer to the center line of the chassis. Which is OK for now, I have an RCM motor mount for it as well, just no battery box or things to go with it. I'm going with the usual MM esc with CC bec. I can readily get a feigao 9L motor. But I'm stuck on what to do for batteries.
I've wanted to go with A123 M1 cells by assembling my own packs using the M1 cells from dewalt 36v tools, but would a 2s2p be enough to run a 9L? I've had great luck running the smaller A123 cells from black and decker VPX packs in my vendetta, they're able to push alot of current which allows me to gear it higher and still have the punch for take-off.
Are LiPo's the only choice or is it possible to fit enough M1 cells to make the truggy get up and go reasonably well?

Edit: I'll be running 2.2's if it makes much difference